Four of the five officials asked to appear at Friday's Government Oversight Committee hearing in connection with a document shredding incident have said they won't attend.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) _ Several Maine Centers for Disease Control officials have declined a request to appear before a legislative oversight committee on the possible mishandling and destruction of public documents.

The Portland Press Herald reports that four of the five officials asked to appear at Friday's Government Oversight Committee hearing have said they won't attend, citing an email from the health department's legal counsel.

Sharon Leahy-Lind, a former Maine CDC employee, has said she was ordered to shred documents on the scoring and selection process for health program funds that were sought in an open-records request. She's sued the state and a top official at CDC.

Democratic Sen. Emily Cain of Ororo, co-chair of the committee, says Leahy-Lind has notified the committee that she'll attend, but the other four officials have declined.